Highly Targeted Therapies For Brain Cancer

Our Focus

Curtana Pharmaceuticals is developing highly targeted therapies for the treatment of brain cancer, including glioblastoma in adults and pediatric high grade glioma in children.

Patients typically are treated with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, current treatments offer little hope of significantly prolonging a patient’s life.

Curtana is advancing a novel small molecule therapy, CT-179, which has been shown to significantly prolong survival in relevant animal models. The target is Olig2, a cancer stem cell-associated transcription factor that is critical for tumor initiation and growth. CT-179 will enter clinical development in early 2018.

Olig2

Our Science

About Us

Curtana Pharmaceuticals was founded on a mission to develop the first truly targeted therapies for the treatment of the most aggressive types of brain cancer. The company’s drug development program is based on the pioneering research of Dr. Santosh Kesari, who is currently the Chairman of the Department of Translational Neuro-oncology and Neuro-therapeutics at the John Wayne Cancer Institute.

Curtana’s senior leadership brings years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with extensive backgrounds in the development of new molecular entities for the treatment of cancer as well as CNS disorders.

Curtana initiated operations in San Diego, California in 2013. Following the award of a highly prestigious and competitive grant ($7.6M) from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in August 2014, the company relocated its lab and offices to Austin, Texas. Current investors include Thynk Capital, angelMD, Biosense Global, DEFTA Partners, and other anonymous investors.